Tag Archives: Reunions

Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this guest blog post, Mary presents 30 ideas to help make your family reunion a great success and ensure that everyone has a fun and memorable time.

Family reunions are great opportunities for genealogists: a chance to meet relatives, share heirlooms, and hear—and record—family stories. They are also events for everyone to enjoy and have a lot of fun!

Whether your family reunion is to be held at someone’s home, a historical site, a tourist attraction (such as DisneyWorld) or on a cruise ship, you’ll want to engage children and adult attendees in memorable activities.

The possibilities are endless, but if you can’t think of any fun family reunion ideas, try these timeless favorites.

1) Cooking contests: This is always a family favorite, whether you challenge family with a chili cook-off or an old-fashioned pie eating contest.

Photo: cakes and pies at a family reunion in Mayodan, North Carolina. Credit: Carol M. Highsmith; Library of Congress.

2) Family diary and letter reading: Take turns reading inspirational (or juicy) passages of old family diaries and letters.

3) Family bingo: Instead of numbers, make up cards identifying ancestors or historical facts.

4) Family feuds: Pit one family against another, whether by playing “tug of war” or by engaging teams in a version of the TV show.

5) Family food and cookbooks: Serve Grandma’s favorite pie, or dishes from earlier reunions. Compile the recipes into a heritage cookbook.

Photo: a homesteader and his children eating barbeque at the Pie Town, New Mexico, fair c.1940. Credit: Russell Lee; Library of Congress.

6) Tell family stories: This works well around a campfire or by candlelight—especially if there are any family ghost stories.

7) Family trivial pursuit: Everyone submits unusual or unknown facts about themselves that are read aloud without identifying the family member. Teams compete against each other—and to get the ideas flowing, create categories such as: “What I did while visiting my grandparents”; “How I got into trouble”; “Love and marriage”; “Oh my gosh”; “Home town trivia”; “Veterans”; “When and where”; and “My funniest or most embarrassing moment.”

8) Fashion shows and hat parades: Supply hats and clothing from historical periods for children to play dress-up. The more unusual they are the better. Each participant wears a badge that says on the outside “Who am I?” and, when flipped over, identifies the ancestor or time period. The child gets a point if they fooled the guesser, and the adult guesser gets a point for a correct answer. Have participation prizes for the children and a separate grand prize for the adult with the highest score.

9) Family field trips: Take caravans to see places of family interest. Use cars, busses or even arrange a hay ride. Your relatives will love walking in the steps of their ancestors.

Photo: young driver in an old car at a family reunion in North Carolina. Credit: Carol M. Highsmith; Library of Congress.

10) Gencaching: This is a type of hide-and-go-seek treasure hunting, and similar to geocaching, whereby items are hidden and family members hunt for them. To avoid using a GPS, hide small items around a park or room.

11) Greeting cards: Have family members sign greeting cards for those who could not attend because of scheduling conflicts, financial limits, health reasons or otherwise. A modern equivalent is to include remote visitors, by using Skype or a smartphone’s FaceTime or conference settings.

Enter Last Name

12) Jigsaw puzzles: Turn family photos into jigsaw puzzles or create one out of a large-format family tree chart. A twist on this is to give each family several pieces and ask them to complete the puzzle. The family member that finishes first gets a humorous prize.

13) Map makers: Use maps as display items or table cloths—and encourage family members to mark hometowns or where they were born or married. Another option is to plot the migration path of your ancestors. A twist would be to repurpose a map as a type of dartboard attached to cork. If someone hits their hometown a bullseye is awarded, with lesser points awarded for being within range.

14) Memory quilts: Have handicraft-inclined family members piece together autographed quilt squares into souvenir pillows and blankets.

Salem Observer (Salem, Massachusetts), 24 November 1860, page 4

15) Record oral histories: Interview family members about their memories. To get started, bill this as “everything you always wanted to know, but were afraid to ask.” Starter question include: “What is your earliest memory?”; “What do you remember about your grandparents?”; “Would you tell us about serving your country during the war?”; “How did you meet your spouse?” and “Who came to your wedding?”

17) Photo identification (ancestors and living family): Take a historical photo and do a guessing game as to the person, time or place. One of the cutest ideas is: “Guess the baby.”

18) Picture memory game: Make two copies of a variety of ancestor/family photos. Turn upside down and mix them up. Participants then take turns turning over two cards that they think will match. If guessed correctly, another turn is granted; if not the next person or team gets to try.

19) Ancestor picture trading cards: Search the Web for sites to make ancestor trading and playing cards. Some are sold at a reasonable cost and they make for wonderful game prizes or souvenirs.

Enter Last Name

20) Quizzes: Print copies of quizzes from GenealogyBank blogs (see list below) and see who does the best.

21) Reenactments: Write sketches about veteran ancestors for family members to act out—and if possible, dress in period costumes.

22) Sack races: This can be done individually or in pairs. If you prefer teams, two participants each insert a leg into a shared sack or pillowcase. The winning team is the one who crosses the finish line first.

24) Sing-alongs: Combine traditional and family favorites into a songfest that includes hymns and patriotic music. Engage a family musician to play an instrument or use recordings. This works well if you provide sheet music or songbooks.

25) Display old family slide shows: Display slide shows to run in the background for inside gatherings. Collect photos in advance or sneak in ones taken during the event. To have fun, try body-switching. For example, grandpa’s face could be added to the body of his favorite pet.

26) Design t-shirts: Design a t-shirt prior to the event, or use markers to create them during the reunion.

27) Telephone game: All relatives get in a line, and then the first person whispers a family secret into the next person’s ear. The secret is repeated and passed along until the last person states what words actually reached them. Messages always get garbled in this game, and answers can be hilarious.

28) Family history time capsules: Create time capsules with written family stories, photos and artifacts, along with memories from the current event (for example, the schedule of events). Send the time capsules home with families to bury on their properties. Another idea for those on a cruise is to launch a “message in a bottle” and see how long it takes until it comes back to the family.

29) Videotape your family reunion: Take videos of family activities and request that relatives state their names and relationship to others. You don’t want your great grandchildren wondering who “Butch” was in your video.

30) “Where?” or “What is this?” game: Engage attendees in identification guessing games of antique items. If you don’t have real items use photos, such as fire bellows, lanterns, manual typewriters, suspenders and spinning wheels, which will especially fascinate the youngsters.

Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this guest blog post, Mary provides some good advice for planning your next family reunion, and searches old newspapers to show how reunion notices about past family gatherings can fill in details on your family tree.

As winter is waning, start thinking about organizing your family’s annual reunion—and if you desire a strong attendance, don’t delay.

Not only are they a lot of fun, but family reunions are a goldmine to genealogists. Present-day family reunions provide a great opportunity to talk to your extended family, while records and newspaper notices about past family reunions can fill in details on your family tree—and provide plenty of clues for further family searches.

Imagine the fun and lively family history conversations that were had at this large family reunion:

Photo: Photographer Carol M. Highsmith’s family reunion at the log cabins where her Grandfather and Great Grandfather were born in Wentworth, North Carolina. Source: Carol M. Highsmith. Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Family Reunion Planning Tips

To make sure your family reunion is a success, plan it carefully, including:

choose historical locations to visit—or, if possible, as the site of your reunion;

try to line up an interesting speaker or two;

have many activities for all age groups, especially the children; and

send out printed or online invitations with as many details as possible, including transportation and lodging advice.

Ask family members to contribute memories, family history records and genealogies. To make the reunion memorable, do it in a grand style.

Enter Last Name

Family Records of Past Family Reunions

If you’ve done genealogy research into past family gatherings, present those stories at your upcoming reunion. Whether your family was large or small, or met formally or informally, many members kept records such as letters, diaries, etc.,of these family reunions in the past to document what occurred. Try to track down these old records of past family reunions and look for the following information:

Where and when were they held?

Was the scheduling connected with a particular date, such as a wedding anniversary or date of settling to an area?

Who were the organizers, secretaries and presidents of the family association?

Were the speeches transcribed?

What activities were there?

Can you locate the menus or food choices?

Were family charts or family histories created?

Query family members for archived records, and network with genealogy societies, historical societies, libraries and archives (state and national) to see if mementos still exist.

Family Reunion Notices in Historical Newspapers

A helpful—and often overlooked—source of information about past family reunions is the family reunion notice in historical newspapers. Many of these past family reunions were important locally and therefore newsworthy, and were reported in the local newspaper.

Be sure to look for family reunion notices when searching a collection of newspapers, such as GenealogyBank’s online Historical Newspaper Archives.

How to Search for Reunion Notices in Newspapers

The first thing you’ll want to enter on the newspaper search page, of course, is your family surname. Combine that with each of these related keywords to see which combination gives you the best results:

anniversary

wedding anniversary

annual reunion

clan gathering

descendants

family reunion

grand gathering

marriage celebration

progenitor

To find some interesting family reunion notices to show you, I entered “family reunion” in the keyword field on GenealogyBank’s search page, and chose a date range of 1700-1875.

This newspaper search turned up many interesting family reunion notices. Some centered on special occasions, such as a progenitor’s birthday. Others celebrated family milestones, such as honoring the first of the family (progenitors) who settled in an area.

An example of the latter type of reunion notice is this one, a family gathering to honor Edward Rawson, who was the secretary of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

According to the following notice, his clan held their first annual reunion in 1872.

Massachusetts Spy (Worcester, Massachusetts), 11 October 1872, page 2

One of the most widely-reported reunion announcements was for a gathering of the descendants of John Eliot (c.1604-1690), described as the “Apostle to the Indians.” If you examine the 228 query results from a search in GenealogyBank, you’ll soon discover a wealth of history surrounding him.

Some newspaper family reunion notices consist of invitations, and others may be brief or detailed recaps of the actual reunion.

And don’t neglect to consider other types of reunions and social gatherings, as not all were centered on families. Organizations, military groups and even towns, such as Otisfield, Maine, brought people together for camaraderie and celebration.

Portland Daily Press (Portland, Maine), 3 June 1873, page 2

Here’s another example of a newspaper reunion notice, this one for a gathering of the McMillan family.

Cincinnati Daily Gazette (Cincinnati, Ohio), 19 August 1871, page 1

To help you find reunion notices about your family, I’ve compiled this list of reunion notices I found while doing research for this Blog article. The accompanying notes are a brief summary of information reported in each notice.

Wright, Elliot and Louisa (held at Swanzey; veteran Elliot Wright “sleeps on southern soil having given his life for his country”)New Hampshire Sentinel (Keene, New Hampshire), 16 September 1875, page 2

Introduction: Gena Philibert-Ortega is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.” In this guest blog post, Gena searches old newspapers to show how much valuable family history information is provided by family reunion stories newspapers routinely printed around Christmas time.

The end of the year seems like the perfect time to renew acquaintances and hold reunions with family and friends. Even though families find it difficult to find time to get together throughout the year for other events like birthdays or anniversaries, Christmas is a time when people are more likely to make the effort to take a trip home. The other benefit of the Holiday season is that for many who normally would have to take vacation time off from work to travel, the Christmas/New Year’s holidays may mean some flexibility with work obligations. So the Holiday season is a great time to plan a family reunion.

The idea of a December family reunion is not a new one. Sure, it’s made easier with modern transportation conveniences, but it was a common occurrence in the late 19th to early 20th century, as shown by many newspaper stories at that time. These Christmas family reunion articles are a great way for family historians to catch a glimpse into the daily lives of their ancestors. A bonus for the genealogist is that these family reunion articles often included the names of all those in attendance. Even short newspaper announcements can contain genealogically rich information that could be of assistance to descendants.

Newspapers report on the lives of a community as well as the celebrities and leaders of a nation. So it’s not surprising that a Christmas family reunion in the White House was newsworthy. For Christmas 1910, newspapers nationwide reported that President Howard Taft had a reunion with his three children, Robert, Helen and Charles, at the White House—complete with a turkey dinner. The only thing missing was the Christmas tree because, as the article notes, the children were “older.”

Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho), 25 December 1910, page 2

While there are countless examples of newspaper articles detailing a family reunion, this one in the Social Affairs column of a 1903 newspaper caught my eye. In the historical newspaper article we find the mention of 13 separate family gatherings. One of the stories, reporting on the dinner at A. Galloway’s, mentions who was there (four generations were present), and reports that the Christmas reunion was leading up to some noteworthy wedding anniversaries. The A. C. Galloways and the A. Galloways would be celebrating their 67th and 56th wedding anniversary in 1904, respectively. It might seem like a breach of etiquette to modern readers but the addition of the words “if they live” came after that statement. If one needed any more hints revealing how old these two couples were, the last sentence of the article notes: “The combined ages of the four is 334 years.”

Daily Telegram (Adrian, Michigan), 28 December 1903, page 2

Maybe you are planning a family reunion of your own this season. Chances are it won’t be as large as this one, reported in a 1922 newspaper. Mrs. M. J. Nash had 91 family members attend her Christmas reunion! Lucky for any of her present-day descendants, the list of those who attended was printed in the newspaper.

The newspaper article concludes by saying she gave everyone in attendance a gift “by which to remember her.”

Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 31 December 1922, section 3, page 9

The old newspaper article about Mrs. Nash’s Christmas family reunion wasn’t the only one I found that included the names of other family members in attendance. This 1921 Christmas reunion article for the family of Mr. and Mrs. John Stanford included the names of those who attended and the number of children they had. As a genealogist, this historical newspaper article is very appealing since it also provides the couple’s street address and a sentence reporting on a family photo that was taken and who was in the photo: “A picture of the host and hostess, with their sons and daughters, grouped about them, was also another feature, and this should be a pleasant reminder for the parents of the event.”

Jackson Citizen Patriot (Jackson, Michigan), 28 December 1921, page 6

Did your ancestor hold a Christmas family reunion? This fact may not be known to your present-day family—but if it did occur there’s a good chance it and the names of all gathered can be found in their local newspaper. Finding such an article full of relatives’ names would be a great genealogy gift to receive, something that would make any family historian smile.

The nice thing about newspapers is that they record everything that happens: births, deaths, and everything in-between. A lot of that “in-between stuff” are the stories of our ancestors’ lives that help us get to know them better.

In general, Americans are a social people. We form groups, make plans, organize, and hold meetings. Milestones are often celebrated with anniversary gatherings and reunions.

These reunions—like the ninth annual reunion of the First Tennessee Cavalry held in 1895—were reported in the local newspaper.

Here is one such reunion story about a gathering of former veterans from that famed Tennessee Civil War regiment that fought in the Union army. This long newspaper article was published in the Knoxville Daily Journal (Knoxville, Tennessee), 1 September 1895, page 13.

This historical news article covers the basics, such as the names of the Tennessee regiment’s officers and the order of the activities in the meeting.

Reading down the article, we find that the “secretary was ordered to prepare a complete roster of the survivors of the regiment, together with rank and post office address.”

Great! Note to self: track down a copy of that roster.

The last half of the old newspaper article is a “very brief history of the First Tennessee Cavalry.” This historical news article provides great genealogical information we can use to trace our military ancestry, gives a glimpse into these Tennessee Union soldiers’ lives, and provides some Civil War history.

Genealogy Search Tip: Did your ancestor serve in the Civil War or other American wars? Then search in GenealogyBank’s historical newspaper archives for newspaper articles and military records about the unit your veteran ancestor served with: its campaigns, reunions, history, etc.